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            ONE HUNDRED TWO: What kind of wordchain? - Super Supportive | Royal Road
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                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Were you expecting the competition for the showers to be the highest drama part of gym class?” Alden asked Haoyu as the two of them headed down a broad avenue toward North of North gym. It was a ten minute walk from the MPE building, right on the edge of campus, and apparently, they had both had the same idea when they discovered they were going to have to wait for their turns anyway.</span>
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                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Haoyu was gulping from a water bottle. “I’m glad my group was getting along well. I think the one with the speedsters in it had some kind of issue. They seemed tense.”</span>
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                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Finlay <span style="font-style: italic">had</span> looked pretty mad. It was the first time Alden had seen the Scottish boy in anything but a cheerful mood.</span>
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                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“I didn’t have the attention span to watch them and run from Snake’s tennis ball pitches.</span> <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">It somehow adds insult to injury that he makes you chase the balls down after they hit you.”</span>
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                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">When they reached the airy glass building that Alden thought of as the main gym, the same girl in lime green yoga pants who’d been protecting the entrance from riffraff and gawkers on his first visit greeted them both warmly. She was giving out cups of some of the liquefied salads that the spa upstairs bottled and sold as drinks.</span>
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                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">They both took one.</span>
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                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">As they headed toward the showers, Haoyu sipped the black pepper beet juice he’d chosen and wrinkled his nose. “I don’t think I’m old enough to drink this.”</span>
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                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Alden raised an eyebrow at him.</span>
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                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“I’m trying!” Haoyu said. “Being friends with Lexi’s <span style="font-style: italic">hard</span>. He got really serious about nutrition in the past year or two. I saw him cut a single piece of chocolate in half once. And there I was stuffing six in my mouth at a time. I want to eat healthy, but I like candy <span style="font-style: italic">so</span> much. And anything fried.”</span>
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                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Is that why you bought the slow cooker?”</span>
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                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Haoyu nodded. “That, and because my mom kept telling me I shouldn’t buy it because I wouldn’t ever use it. I’m going to use it every day. And send her pictures. Starting tonight. The bouncing oatmeal was just a temporary setback. It didn’t even taste that bad.”</span>
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                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">He looked curiously at a man casting spells on a section of the climbing wall as they passed it. “I’m so glad you’ve got a membership here, too. I really wanted one, and my parents wanted me to have it. But I almost told them not to buy it for me because it’s so…um…”</span>
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                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Richy?”</span>
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                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“<span style="font-style: italic">Yes.</span> Mom and Dad both come here, but they have to. They need the facilities in the heavy gym. I could probably have used the school equipment until I was halfway through uni. But everything here is <span style="font-style: italic">so</span> much nicer, and I used to play on the rock wall in the onsite daycare and just imagine how great it was going to be when I was finally fifteen and I could use the real one. They can set it to have high winds, floods, and earthquakes! I went for it. And you’re here, too! We’ll both look richy together, and it won’t be as awkward when we leave school to use the better stuff.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Happy to spoil myself with you.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">They walked past an attendant into the room with the big rainfall showers and the ridiculously fluffy scented towels.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Haoyu beamed at him. “Soooo, since you’re here with me, and you’re not going to freak out about it…I’ll confess that I actually already have potion therapy sauna slots booked for a few days a week until the end of term. I was always planning to come here instead of using the student showers.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Alden blinked at him. The potions saunas had been a part of his facilities tour. For a hundred argold—or more depending on which sauna you chose—you could sweat and inhale magical substances that did rather out-there sounding things.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Are you having your spirit waxed or…?”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“No!” Haoyu laughed. “Is that even real? I’m using the recovery sauna. Potions aren’t as good as healers, obviously, but if I sit in there for ninety minutes or so, I don’t really need to rest on my rest days, and I don’t get too sore. I’m just going to do my homework in there instead of sitting through study halls. My mom did sauna homework her whole last year of uni. It was her idea, and since I wasn’t saying no to the gym membership I wasn’t going to say no to something like this.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-style: italic">He’s basically turning the two hour study hall into recovery time.</span> Alden wondered if Mrs. Zhang-Demir had been attempting to balance out Haoyu’s lifestyle when she tried to set a dorm decorating budget.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“That’s very efficient,” said Alden.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“I’m telling you so you can book a slot tonight, if you want to do homework together. And so you’re not like, ‘Where did Haoyu go? Is he trying to get away from me?’ when I jump straight out of the shower and run off to the sauna instead of heading back to the dorms with you.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Gotcha.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Do you want to come?”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“…isn’t it a lot of famous people sitting around in towels together, talking about superhero stuff?”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">That sounded like a high pressure environment to do homework in unless your parents were famous superheroes and you were used to them.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“I’ve only used it a few times so far. It’s not that many people, and they’re all zoned out watching videos or working on their interfaces. They don’t talk and interrupt my studying, so it’s good.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Let me think about it.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr; text-align: center">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">******</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Alden had a couple of minutes to debate it while they both rinsed off.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Pro: doing homework with Haoyu was in line with his mission to be a great roommate.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Con: shirtlessness.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Pro: trying the new magic thing with someone his own age for backup instead of facing down a bunch of forty-year-olds who could create waterspouts and pitch railcars by himself.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Con: money.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Pro: feeling good tomorrow instead of feeling ouch tomorrow.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">The cons aren’t really cons.</span></span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">He didn’t want to be shy about the tattoo forever with the people he actually <span style="font-style: italic">lived</span> with. And as for the money…</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Alden had given half of it to Boe so that his family and friends would be taken care of no matter where he was. He’d be spending half of what he had left on supplies, gear, and calling fees to make himself the most absurdly well-equipped and well-connected Rabbit on the Triplanets the next time he was summoned.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">A little would be set aside in his <span style="font-style: italic">backup</span> backup emergency fund.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">But all the rest of it…</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">He’d just about talked himself into spending a million dollars however he wanted. As fast as he felt like. When the mood struck him.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Neha had told him to save it for a downpayment on his future immortality, and everything on the internet was about preparing for retirement. Meanwhile, the tiny remnants of the person he’d been in January kept shouting that this much money should last him until he was a <span style="font-style: italic">wrinkly old man</span>.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">He thought all of them were overconfident in his ability to make it to the wrinkly stage of life.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Besides, even if he did live to a ripe old age, two or three short summonings a year would make for a decent salary by his standards. He’d be absolutely floored if he only got summoned twice a year.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Mind made up, he flicked through his interface and booked a recovery sauna slot. Then he quickly checked the North of North website to make sure he actually understood what you were supposed to <span style="font-style: italic">do</span> in potion saunas.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Just sit there. No clothes or shoes. Towels. Shower first. No noisy, bright, or smelly spells. No food. Respect the tranquility of the environment.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Gee they don’t tell you where to hide your auriad. That’s an oversight.</span></span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">He could go with under the wrist cuff or on a thigh. The auriad was getting more and more helpful every day about staying put comfortably wherever he wanted it to.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">A couple of minutes later, towel around his waist, he was stepping into the sauna.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">It was hot and spacious with soft lighting and steam. Five women, three men, and Haoyu each had plenty of room to themselves on the two tiers of pale wood benches. Alden assumed it was all normal enough…for Apex anyway. The adults mostly had that fit-and-flawless look about them that was so common in this gym he hardly ever noticed it anymore. And there was a little bitty cauldron on a pedestal in the middle of the floor. The clear substance inside was <span style="font-style: italic">blub-blubbing</span>, and he thought it was the source of the watermelonish scent.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Haoyu smiled brightly and waved him over. “I’m going to watch all the drone footage of my rescues first,” he said quietly. “And then we have that reading assignment on ‘outsmarting enemies’ for offense.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Alden sat down beside him. By the time he’d started to sweat, he’d gotten over the inherent oddness of doing homework in such an uncommon environment—mostly because Haoyu was a dedicated student. Alden couldn’t stay hung up on towel etiquette while they were having a serious texting conversation about whether saving two of the sandbags at once would increase rescue speed enough to justify the difficulty, risk, and/or talent strain.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">The time went by quickly. A gym employee brought water for them and a refill potion for the tiny cauldron just as he finished up the reading for Instructor Klein. It had already been an hour. His homework was half done. He felt tired, but a little less so than when he’d sat down. Either his body liked saunas or it liked inhaling magic steam.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Most of the people who’d been here to start with were gone. There was just one woman wearing cucumbers over her eyes while she lounged on the top bench…which was technically having food in the sauna, wasn’t it?</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">He glanced over at Haoyu. His dark hair was stuck to his forehead, and his mouth was moving slightly. He was one of those people who did that even when they were reading silently.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Alden kept at his own homework.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Cucumber lady left about fifteen minutes later. Alden was busy watching a video, so he wouldn’t have noticed. But as soon as she closed the door behind her, Haoyu said, “Why can she wear food, but we can’t eat food?”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“I was thinking the same thing.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Haoyu looked over at him. “Thanks for studying with me. I didn’t beg too much, did I? I know it’s expensive. I just got excited to have a gym buddy. The only other people I know of who are even close to our age here are a couple of uni first years.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“This is fun. I probably wouldn’t ever have tried it if you hadn’t asked, so I’m glad you did,” Alden said. “I was more worried about wearing my towel backwards than the money.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Haoyu looked thoughtful. “I don’t think you <span style="font-style: italic">can</span> wear a towel backward.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“What if I got here and everyone else had turned theirs into a toga? Or they were supposed to be for our heads instead of our waists?”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Haoyu snorted.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“It could happen. You Anesidorans have weird customs. Spas have weird customs. Magic has weird customs. All three combined in one location? If I’d walked in and found out we all had to remove our towels and bow to the cauldron, I wouldn’t have been very surprised.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“You were supposed to do that.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Alden stared at him.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">The other boy’s expression was sincere. “It’s all right that you didn’t do it. Since it was your first time, nobody expected you to know—”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Lexi’s right about you! You do deliver jokes in the exact same tone as serious material.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Haoyu grinned.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“What if you do that to someone…you can’t do that! Someone like Jeffy will totally get naked and worship a wizard soup pot!”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Jokes are funnier when they’re subtle.” He lifted an arm up and over his head to start a shoulder stretch. “I’m glad you wanted to try it. I was a lot more focused knowing someone else was doing the same assignments.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-style: italic">Haoyu’s not going to mention it.</span> Alden was gratified but not really surprised. <span style="font-style: italic">He’s so good-natured. And his mom…</span></span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Alden decided he wasn’t going to get a better chance to bring it up himself. “Do you think our classmates will make a big deal about the tattoo when they see it?”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Arm still bent behind his head, Haoyu cut his eyes toward him. “It’s real, right?”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Yes.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“You just have to ignore them,” Haoyu said. “You’re rooming with me and Lexi and <span style="font-style: italic">Lute</span>… Plus everyone’s already talking about how something crazy happened to you. And you’re a Rabbit. The purity people have already slotted you in with the rest of us. They’re stupid and they just repeat whatever their parents say, so who cares?”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Alden felt like he was missing at least a couple of social factors that Haoyu was treating as obvious. “The purity people?”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“You know, the ones who are like, ‘Anyone who wants to work for the Artonans is an alien bumkisser. Anyone who gets summoned all the time cares more about money than human pride.’ Those people. I think there are only one or two in our whole class who are seriously that way.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">He dropped his arm and shrugged.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“I haven’t noticed,” said Alden.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Sometimes it’s someone who’s lost a family member to an emergency summons, and then, I understand. They’re grieving and angry. But <span style="font-style: italic">usually</span> it’s just the kids of Contract refusers, or people who’ve never been called at all for some reason, and they want to act like not being a part of that aspect of Avowed life somehow makes them better than everyone else.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“So they’re assholes?”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Mostly. Those people are going to be terrible no matter what, so I say don’t worry about them. Everyone else…”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Haoyu’s brows suddenly lowered. “Maybe I wouldn’t flash it around the locker room, after all? Even if most of them don’t really have a problem with private contracts, they’re still going to say stupid things and gossip about it. It’s the same reason I don’t tell most people when my parents are doing something dangerous.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">He nodded once, as if to settle the matter, then added, “And obviously don’t worry about me. Or any <span style="font-style: italic">mature</span> people. Mom and dad both have tattoos. From Triplanets work and from the demon suppression. Everyone who helps with that gets a secrecy one. And Lexi’s little sister has eight now!”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Half of them are turtles,” said Alden.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Haoyu laughed. “Lexi won’t admit it, but he’s <span style="font-style: italic">super</span> worried that his parents are wrong and they won’t actually wash off. I think he’s already planning to murder anyone who says anything about the fact that Irina is blue.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr; text-align: center">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">******</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">They headed back to the dorm in the dark, and they met a rolling cafeteria delivery drone on the way that had half of Haoyu’s supper in it.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Listen,” Haoyu said, walking backward while he pleaded with the slowly trundling box, “that’s <span style="font-style: italic">my</span> vegetable rice. I’m Haoyu Zhang-Demir, Garden Hall, Suite 208. That’s me! My name’s on your lid display. Give it to me, and I’ll get to eat it sooner and you’ll get to go back to the cafeteria sooner. It makes sense!”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-style: italic">Beeeeep,</span> the drone said angrily when Haoyu moved to block its way again.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Not <span style="font-style: italic">beep</span>! Rice. My rice. I want it!”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Alden was trying not to lose it. “I don’t think it understands you. It probably can’t give it to you until it reaches the room.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“It’s such a slow, dumb one! Why does CNH have slow, dumb drones?”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Alden coughed. “You want me to pick it up?”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“They make a huge racket and report you to drone operations if you interfere with their delivery for more than a second or two, and then an operator <span style="font-style: italic">scolds</span> you,” said Haoyu, stepping out of the drone’s path and rolling his eyes.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“No, I mean…tell me to pick it up.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Haoyu blinked. “You mean with your skill?”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“I recover from fatigue quickly, so it will work for this. And the drone can’t beep or report if it’s preserved, right? We’re just going to help it get to our room faster.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“That’s crazy. Drone operations is going to think it learned to teleport…let’s do it! Pick it up!”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Alden swooped down on the drone.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">A few minutes later, laughing like dumbasses, they set the rolling box down in front of the doors to Garden Hall then hid behind a planter watching it.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“It’s so freaked out,” Haoyu whispered, watching the box sit there silently.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“How did I get here?” Alden whispered back. “Where am I? I am full of rice and confusion.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“You’re so weird.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Shut up. You’re hiding behind a pepper plant with me.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Peppers! Are these ones we can take? Oh, it’s figured it out. I’m getting a delivery notice.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">He bounced over to the drone, and it’s lid popped open.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“You two look happy,” Lute said when they stepped into the room shortly after that. He was lying on the chesterfield, reading one of Haoyu’s Chinese comic books. “Downright <span style="font-style: italic">vibrant</span> compared to Lexi. He staggered in, ate some of the food in the cooker, and he’s been in the tub ever since. Does he bathe with his whip?”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Maybe. He’s a Meister. They do things like that,” said Haoyu, setting his container of rice on the counter and lifting the lid on the chicken-onion dish he’d concocted. “This doesn’t look bad!”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“It’s really good with ramen,” said Lute.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“It is?! I have to call my mom!” Alden told himself he was content with the liquid salad he’d bought on the way out of the gym and the bean burgers he was microwaving. He carried his plate into the living room and took Lexi’s favorite armchair.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“The self-mastery wordchain was fantastic,” he told Lute between bites of burger.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Lute dropped the comic book on the ottoman and rolled over to look at him. “It’s <span style="font-style: italic">cool,</span> right?”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“I don’t think I’d want to use it every day, since this shirt now has a hole burned into the back of it that seemed like a completely reasonable thing to do at the time. But it was so good in the gym. It ran out about the time Big Snake started pelting me with deathballs.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Deathballs?”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Tennis balls at deadly speeds!” Haoyu called.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“I know I was only my normal self again, and my normal self is pretty good at running around and ducking. But I felt so awkward all of the sudden. Like my limbs got stupider.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Yeah, I’m always disappointed in my natural state of being when it fizzles out, too. Do you still want to learn it?”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“I need to pay the debt. Can we do that tonight?”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Lute looked at the plate on Alden’s lap. “Sure. But not while you’re eating. I bit my own finger doing that once.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Haoyu sat down with them a minute later, with a pile of food he’d very obviously tried to make photogenic. “We’ve done it. Our first official day of school.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“You cute little first years,” said Lute.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“You’re a first year, too!” said Haoyu.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Yeah, but I’m a grizzled old veteran first year. I bet you two don’t even know which of the toilets on campus have spells and gag flushes on them.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Haoyu and Alden exchanged looks.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“I feel like we need more details,” said Alden.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Absolutely not. It’s a right of passage to figure it out yourself.” He looked at Alden’s plate again. “You finished your burgers. How much fun can Haoyu and I have at your expense?”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“What do you mean?”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“As a friend, I should tell you to go get in bed for the night before I drop the debt on you. But…as a friend…I think you should let us observe you a while instead.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Is he going to be funny?”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“He’s going to be <span style="font-style: italic">so</span> funny.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Lute was grinning. Haoyu looked excited.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr; text-align: center">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">******</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Alden Thorn was pretty sure he’d done it. He’d just become a great roommate.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Would a <span style="font-style: italic">not</span> great roommate let two teenage boys who were laughing like hyenas watch him try to wash dishes when he was in this state?</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">He didn’t think so.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-style: italic">The feet are more important,</span> he told himself. <span style="font-style: italic">Pay attention to your balance.</span></span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">He stood firm.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">The cup he’d been washing fell out of his hand into the small sink and sent soapy water splashing onto the floor. For the third time.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“What the hell?”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">It came out sounding like “Whadell?”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">His tongue now had a disturbing habit of skipping over sounds. He accessed their roommate group chat.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">[Alden: Lute, did you somehow give me a triple dose of this shit!?]</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Haoyu was on the floor mopping spills with a kitchen towel they only owned thanks to his mother and her assistant explaining that kitchen towels were a must-have item. Lute was lying on his back on the table, clutching his stomach. They were both howling.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">[Alden: I can’t even talk! This can’t be normal.]</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">It wasn’t exactly that he couldn’t talk. With careful effort, he could talk, stand up safely, or move his hands the way he wanted to. But doing all three at once was suddenly rocket science.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Lute had even insisted on checking the water temperature before he put his hands in the sink. Apparently with this half of the wordchain, you could be minimally aware of the fact that you were boiling yourself.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“I p-promise it’s only one!” Lute gasped. “After you finish the dishes, let’s…let’s try brushing your teeth!”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">[Alden: If there’s a fire tonight, I’ll die. I’ll never make it down the stairs.]</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“We’d carry you!” Haoyu said from the floor as another stream of bubbles slopped over the edge toward him.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Lexi, scowling, stepped into the kitchen right then. He was in pajama pants. He crossed his arms over his bare chest. “Why are you three so loud, and what did you do to—?”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Hi,” said Alden. “I’m fine.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">His arm overshot the drainboard by a mile, and a fork clattered across the tile counter.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Don’t fall!” Haoyu shouted.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-style: italic">I’m not falling,</span> thought Alden.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">But Haoyu was on his feet suddenly and Alden was being caught and set upright, so he <span style="font-style: italic">must</span> have been falling.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Lexi walked over to the sink, his eyes wide. “Are you drunk?” he hissed in Alden’s ear. “Did you two get him drunk?!”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Yeah that’s it,” said Lute. “Just look at all this booze we’ve got lying around.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“I’mnah drunk! I’m jethnah master now.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Probably “I’m just not the master of myself right now” <span style="font-style: italic">was</span> an overly ambitious sentence.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“He <span style="font-style: italic">is</span> drunk! He looks just like a drunk person on television! He sounds just like a drunk person.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“He’s not drunk,” said Haoyu, trying to square Alden’s shoulders from behind like he was straightening an unruly shelf.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Are niffing?” Alden asked as Lexi leaned toward him and inhaled.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">[Alden: He’s sniffing me. Stop it, Lexi. I don’t have beer breath. ]</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Lute started cackling again.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“It’s a clumsines<span style="font-style: italic">s</span> wordchain,” Haoyu said. “That’s why he sounds fine on the room chat but not with his mouth. It seems pretty strong. Lute gave it to him.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“<span style="font-style: italic">Pretty</span> strong?” Lexi asked, staring as another tricky fork made a bid for freedom.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“We aren’t letting him wash knives.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Lexi frowned. “Should you be letting him stand up?”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">[Alden: I’m a good roommate. I’m washing all the dishes by myself!]</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Haoyu’s keeping you upright.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">[Alden: He’s a good roommate, too.]</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">[Haoyu: Thank you! That’s not a dish you’re washing though. It’s the pear you knocked in the sink earlier.]</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Alden looked down to see himself scrubbing the peel off a green pear with the dish brush. He set the fruit aside with as much dignity as he could.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Lexi looked at them all, then he sighed and went to fetch the forks.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">After the dishes, they all three followed Alden around while he attempted to go through his nighttime routine. Equal amounts of teasing and mother-henning were involved. They wouldn’t let him trip over the edges of the rugs—maybe he shouldn’t have bought <span style="font-style: italic">quite</span> such thick ones—and bust his face. But they absolutely all stood there snickering while he tried to get toothpaste out of the tube onto his brush.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Don’t waste it!” said Haoyu as Alden stared down at the tablespoonful of green paste oozing down the sides of the brush onto his hand. “Put it all in your mouth.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“It’s not a mistake, you guys!” Lute said. “He wanted that much. You should have seen what he ate for lunch.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Anesidoran social dynamic,” said Lexi. “Spit goes in the sink.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">[Alden: <span style="font-style: italic">Et tu</span>, Lexi?]</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Why do we randomly say ‘Anesidoran social dynamic’ to Alden sometimes?” Lute asked as he finished brushing.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Alden glanced at them all in the mirror.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Lexi’s expression was neutral.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">[Alden: Because I whined about Lexi keeping Anesidoran social dynamics to himself when he knew I was ignorant. I was being a dick.]</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">About Lute. He felt <span style="font-style: italic">even worse</span> about that now.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Compared to <span style="font-style: italic">Lexi</span>?” Lute asked. .</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">[Alden: That time I was.]</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Lute gasped in mock horror. “Cool! Anesidoran social dynamic—remember you have to pee before bed. <span style="font-style: italic">For real</span>.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Lexi and Haoyu both looked startled.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“What kind of wordchain <span style="font-style: italic">is</span> this?” Lexi asked for the third time.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr; text-align: center">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">******</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Alden wasn’t sure about the lack of bodily awareness being great for sleeping. He might just have been tired after the day he’d had. But he was drifting off easily, right on the brink of unconsciousness, when the notification came in:</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">[Video call from Twenty-seven Hundred and Sixty-third General Evul-art’h, Artona I. Connection fee waived.]</span></span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Alden stared at it.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Stuart was calling. Early. It shouldn’t have been much of a surprise. Alden was up in the middle of the night a lot, and Stuart knew that.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">But I’m in bed. And my tongue is broken.</span></span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">He reached up and slapped at the switch for the reading light over his bunk. When he finally got it on, he accepted the call with a thought.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Evul-art’h’s black hair and pale pink eyes appeared. She was in her cushioned window seat again.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“The human is very &lt;&lt;loosey-goosey&gt;&gt;today, Stu,” she reported. “He’s in bed.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-style: italic">Loosey-goosey?</span> Alden was going to have to look into the word that was being translated that way.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Did we wake him up?” Stuart inserted his face between his sister and the tablet. “Did we wake you up? I’m sorry. I called as soon as I got home. I wasn’t thinking about the time as much as I should have been.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Evul-art’h gave them both a curious look.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“It’s all right,” Alden said slowly in the least loosey-goosey Artonan he could manage. <span style="font-style: italic">Think only about the tongue. Only the tongue.</span> “I’m on the bad half of a wordchain now. Do you mind if we send text messages instead? Or talk in the morning? My mouth—”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">Stuart smiled. “Go to sleep. I’ll call back later.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“He means <span style="font-style: italic">I’ll</span> call back later,” his sister said dryly.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Thank you. Both of you. We can talk all day tomorrow, Stuart. If you want. Night-night.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        &#160;
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr; text-align: center">
                                                        <hr />
                                                        <p class="cmUyMmY2ODgwNWE4MzRiODJiNjVkMTkxZDVhMDg2N2Qz">
                                                            <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.</span>
                                                        </p>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“The human just said <span style="font-style: italic">night-night</span> and hung up on you. And me,” said Evul-art’h in an intrigued voice. “Mostly me, since it’s officially me calling.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“He has a name.” Stu-art’h perched on the edge of the lounger beside her.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“I <span style="font-style: italic">know</span>. It’s your fault for naming your pet after him. Now I don’t know what to call either of them!”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Alden. And…Other Alden.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“The Ryeh-b’t and the other ryeh-b’t. Not confusing in the slightest.” She shoved herself back into her cushions. After a moment, she said, “Stu, are you all right these days?”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">He sighed. “I would be much more all right if you would all stop wanting things for me that I don’t want for myself.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">She smiled. “You’re still angry with me. I don’t know why you thought I wouldn’t side with the others. It’s only the small matters I allow myself to be careless about. You are not a small matter.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">One of her hands rummaged under a golden yellow pillow and pulled out one of her lungsticks. She held the dark tube out to him, and he lit it with a flick of his fingers.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“You’ve always been such a beautiful caster, Stu.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">He stood.</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“Thank you for calling Alden,” he said stiffly. “I would appreciate it if you did me the favor again when he has finished resting.”</span>
                                                    </div>
                                                </div>
                                                <div style="margin: 1em 0; caret-color: #000000">
                                                    <div style="direction: ltr">
                                                        <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">“I’ll do all manner of favors for you, baby brother.” She drew on the stick and sent a cloud of blue smoke toward the ceiling. “Consider doing just <span style="font-style: italic">one</span> for me in return.”</span>
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                                                <span class="caption-subject bold uppercase">A note from Sleyca</span>
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                                                <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">*****Notes*****</span>
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                                            <p>
                                                <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif">** Not really a note, but do you guys know how different sauna and locker room etiquette can be from country to country...or in the US, at least, from school to school and gym to gym? And generational differences, too. It's one of those weird things I never think about, and then I have to all of the sudden for the story. **</span>
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                                                <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-weight: bold">Other Alden</span> -- the most important character that never gets screentime. Other Alden is a red female ryeh-b't. She looks like a cross between a dragon and a bipedal dinosaur. Only small. Stu-art'h bought her egg after First Alden's assumed death. He turned his bathroom into a terrarium-like habitat for her. She has her own little splashing pool in there. Many Artonan children train ryeh-b'ts for flight, message carrying, and hunting competitions; Stuart says he's giving OA the same training even though he doesn't plan to let her compete.</span>
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                                                <span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-weight: bold">Art'h</span> -- The surname used by the Primary's family. It sounds almost like "art" with a nearly silent exhalation on the end. So technically there is a difference in "Stuart" and "Stu-art'h" as far as pronunciation goes.</span>
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